Xeq wrote:
Come on now, many of you have been in the military. What do you think the response would have been if you had complained to your superior that your "work hours" were affecting your sleep patterns and you needed different ones?
The Military also has it's own medical system, where they can evaluate and document any legitimate medical concerns.
If you have a permanent medical condition that prevents you from doing a certain job, they may allow you to retrain into a skill that you are a capable of performing with your given 'restrictions', however, as we were so often reminded, "The Needs Of The Air Force Come First!®".
If your condition warrants it, or you are otherwise unable to perform the normal duties expected of you, and it's determined to be permanently debilitating, then you would likely be separated under special (medical) circumstances (and rightfully so).
In order for this to happen, the military doctors would have to recognize and verify your 'condition' and be willing to write up a medical profile (duty restrictions) based on that.
When I was on active duty (think 1980's), if I went to a military doctor and told them shift work was making me tired and affecting me negatively, I would have probably been prescribed whatever the sleep aid of the day was, and maybe even a stimulant to keep me alert while on duty.
Interestingly, the Elemendorf Air Force Base hospital in Alaska was one of the first in the world to have a Light Therapy room to treat people with Seasonal Affective Disorder. This was mainly to combat the depressive effects of the long dark winters for people who weren't used to them than it was for shift workers.